When the cat’s away, to paraphrase an old cliché, the rats will play. Neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp, working at Washington State University, has devoted a decade to watching that play. And from those ...

David Stipp’s “Why Rats Laugh & Jellyfish Sleep” is a breezy ode to nature’s long game. The respected science expert’s beautifully written book celebrates the adaptive ingenuity of animals whose ...

So a scientist walks into a shopping mall to watch people laugh. There's no punchline. Laughter is a serious scientific subject, one that researchers are still trying to figure out. Laughing is primal ...

WASHINGTON -- So a scientist walks into a shopping mall to watch people laugh. There's no punchline. Laughter is a serious scientific subject, one that researchers are still trying to figure out.

WASHINGTON - So a scientist walks into a shopping mall to watch people laugh. There's no punchline. Laughter is a serious scientific subject, one that researchers are still trying to figure out.